Conventional semiconductor devices comprise one or more semiconductor chips and, if appropriate, further circuit elements which are mounted and electrically contacted to contact elements of a substrate. The electrical contact-connection by means of the substrate is effected between the individual chips and the circuit elements of the semiconductor device, on the one hand, and also between the semiconductor device and the external circuit elements on the other hand. The individual chips of a semiconductor device may be discrete, unpackaged chips or chips which are likewise mounted and contacted on a substrate and have different types of embodiments of a housing in the sense of an encapsulating protection. The mounting of a chip “on” a substrate also indicates the function of the substrate as a mount of the chip. It also encompasses those constructions in which the substrate has structures that are adapted to the chip and that at least partly receive the chip.